Thanksgiving Becomes Thanksliving...

"Thanksgiving for God’s love always seeks to become thanks-living – a living and giving of His love" - Ann Voskamp.

Today on her blog, she asks us to share a habit that makes things new each day.


I've been thinking about that, what I could write, and then last week during Morning Prayer, I discovered that Monday the 9th was the observed day for Julia Chester Emery.


[I feel like I need to do a side note here. Julia is part of the Holy Men, Holy Women, that the Episcopal Church recognizes. Getting on this list is rather different than becoming a saint in the Catholic church, although we still share some saints in common (up to the 15th century split, anyway).]


Julia Chester Emery, among other things, is known for starting the UTO program in the Episcopal Church.


UTO = United Thank Offering.

This worked by giving each woman a small box with a slit in the top and encouraging her to drop a small contribution in to it whenever she felt thankful for something. Once a year, the women of the parish presented these at a Sunday service. The money was sent to national headquarters to be used for missions. (sources: Wikipedia and Daily Office by Mission St. Clare (James Kiefer)).

Whenever I feel thankful for something, drop a small contribution into a box.

If I do this every time I give thanks for a gift during the Joy Dare ... that's 1,000 pennies, 1,000 dollars, 1,000 times something!

This is something I could do. A penny for each thanks give, to "thankslive" someone else?

I feel like I'm sounding very Ann Voskamp saying that.

So I made a box. Well, a jar actually.

And at the end of the year, I'll count up the money and send it to a charity. I haven't decided which yet. There are more than a few candidates, but my hope is that God will show me where I can help with it.

So who else wants to thankslive while we thanks give?

PS. Yesterday, I posted part of my story. Just in case you were interested.

I am linking this to Ann Voskamp's "Walk with Him Wednesdays".